County officials at odds over budget amountkr

County Administrator Rick Helms presented commissioners with a $114.8 million budget on Tuesday.

In the next two months, the four commissioners – who hold the county's purse strings – will decide whether to abide by Helms' recommendations.

Where does that money go?

About 26.5 percent is consumed by the five constitutional officers. The sheriff's department alone will take almost 20 percent.

Also, two constitutional officers – Sheriff Susan Benton and Tax Collector Eric Zwayer – disagreed Wednesday with the numbers submitted on Tuesday.

Benton said she will oppose the $22.5 million budget submitted at Tuesday's county commission meeting. Benton said she proposed $23.9 million.

"I really can't be okay with a reduction like that," Benton said Wednesday. "The first time I knew about it was Friday. I was on vacation, and I got an email from Mr. Helms, saying he was recommending a $1.2 million reduction in our budget."

She had already reduced the sheriff's office budget by $505,000, Benton said. "The county arbitrarily decided our budget should be cut that much more."

On Tuesday, Benton said, she went back and cut another $343,000 from gasoline, overtime, worker's compensation, capital outlay and other line items.

To budget those reductions, she assumed gasoline would average $3 a gallon, and that there would be no costly emergencies like hurricanes or white-powder scares.

"We've been extremely frugal," Benton said. "We're going to return more than $1 million from the (current) budget at the end of this year (Sept. 31)."

Tax collector

The $1.3 million budget shown in Tuesday's meeting was an estimate based on the $1,575,100 budget FY 10-11 submitted by Eric Zwayer last year, said county budget manager Tim Mechling.

"He submitted an outline of what he was going to do with those fees," Mechling said.

In reality, Zwayer budgeted $2,342,906 for FY 10-11, and he expects to spend about the same amount in FY 11-12.

The other four constitutional officers must submit their budgets on June 1, and the money to fund their offices comes from the commissioners.

Uniquely, the tax collector's budget is based on the 3 percent the office is allowed to keep from the collection of property taxes, fishing licenses, car tags and other registrations.

"We're working on our budget," Zwayer said. "It's due Aug. 1. We're waiting on the school board."

Zwayer is adding two driver's license examiners, one in Avon Park and one in Lake Placid.

"Overall though, it's about breakeven or a bit below," Zwayer said, comparing the current year's total budget to FY 11-12.

Clerk of Courts

In the past two years, two budget items totaling about $200,000 and two county commission employees have been transferred to the clerk of courts: Emergency Operations Center specialist Michele Armstead, who now services computers throughout the county's entire operation, and Nancy Thomas, the law librarian.

Taking those into account, Bob Germaine noted, the clerk of courts has reduced the department budget by 7.2 percent.

The clerk has assumed control of the information technology for all the county commission office, Germaine said. "That's about $1 million, that's probably my biggest department."

When Germaine assumed office in 2009, he had 87 employees. "That's down to 75," he said, "and that includes the two new positions we've taken over."

Property appraiser

The amount shown for Raymond McIntyre's budget in Tuesday's session is $2,520,302.

"That's the amount (Highlands County) is responsible for," McIntyre said. "The water management districts each pay a small portion."

His actual budget is $2,607,824. That's a $204,000 – 7.2 percent – reduction from the current year's $2,812,344 budget.

The savings was accomplished by the elimination of another employee, who retired and was not replaced, McIntyre said. The current year also contained about $95,000 in aerial maps.

"The only increase I have is about $24,500 to replace computer equipment," he said. "That's several PCs and monitors we use in the mapping department."

Like Germaine, McIntyre said computerization has allowed him to add only four people to the staff since 1989, when he was elected, even though Highlands County's population has added 32 percent.

In the past five years, McIntyre said, the slowdown in the economy has also contributed to a slowdown in deeds to record.

Elections office

"My budget's up," said Elections Supervisor Joe Campbell. "Every two years, we have an election, and every four years, we have a presidential primary."

The extra $190,000 pays for election workers in the main office and at the polls, as well as printed ballots and stamps.

"Plus, every 10 years, we have redistricting," Campbell said. "I don't know how they're going to hit me on that."

However, two state house, a state senate and a congressional district could split Highlands County, or could place voters in different districts.